from Ross Marowits of the CP at the National Post,

Molson Coors says the NHL lockout has forced the beer company into the penalty box by reducing beer sales across Canada for its marquee brands.

The Montreal and Denver-based brewer said the financial impact of the nearly two-month labour dispute is difficult to tabulate, but the company’s most important cold-weather driver of sales has disappeared.

“Whether it’s people not actually physically going to the venues and consuming there, consuming in venues around the outlet before that, or indeed having NHL sort of parties at home, all of those occasions have disappeared off the map and you just can’t replicate them,” CEO Peter Swinburn said in an interview Wednesday.

The impact is more pronounced in Canada than in the United States and has particularly hurt sales of Coors Light and Molson Canadian.

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